FTA chief Fernandez to retire

The Federal Transit Administration yesterday announced FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez will retire Feb. 24. FTA Deputy Administrator Veronica Vanterpool then will serve as acting administrator.

Fernandez was named the FTA's deputy administrator in January 2021 after the inauguration of President Joe Biden, and he then nominated her to be administrator. The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination on June 10, 2021.

Fernandez became the first woman of color to serve as the FTA administrator. During her three-year tenure, she led the agency in making transformative investments and created policies that made public transportation stronger and safer nationwide, FTA officials said in a press release.

Fernandez led the FTA's implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's (IIJA) public transportation funding and programs, resulting in record investment in American transit, they said.

That included managing an annual mass transit budget that increased from $13 billion in fiscal-year 2021 to $21 billion in FY2022, and establishing four new IIJA competitive grant programs totaling $2.7 billion over the three years.